


Brilliant Spectrum

by Eurazba



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Multi, Polyamorous Soulmates, Polyamory, Soulmate Au where you see color for the first time, Soulmates, Superhero identities, lying, marinette lies to everyone, some garbage for my polyshipping ass
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-10-20
Packaged: 2018-12-22 20:28:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 20,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11974416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eurazba/pseuds/Eurazba
Summary: When a person first meets their soulmate, their entire world lights up with color. When you have more than one soulmate, each soul mate gives a single color to the other.Marinette faces an issue, she can't tell her soulmates Alya and Nino about her identity as Ladybug, she can't tell them about their other soulmate, Chat Noir, and she can't tell Chat Noir her civilian identity.Reposting from FF.net





	1. Rouge

Being Chat noir was an incredible feeling, a feeling of freedom, power, and joy beyond anything Adrien had ever felt before; and it was amazing not only for those feelings, but for the newfound ability to see color.

It wasn’t every color humans see in the spectrum, Plagg later explained. When transformed, Adrien was able to see the colors that a cat could see, yellow, green, and purple. But the limited colors didn’t matter to Adrien, what he could see was incredible, and brilliant, he never wanted those colors to go away. Unfortunately when he release his first transformation, they did.

Or at least, they had changed from what he could see before.

He turned to Plagg and asked if they were soul mates.

“Well...” Plagg paused, mulling over the question for a moment, “In a way, yes. You were chosen to wield the cat miraculous and in every time you transform, our souls are linked.” He answered with a shrug.

Adrien took the time to observe his room without his transformation, it was so different from the constant shades of white, grey, and black he had known all his life, and now he had time to appreciate the new colors before him. He stared at the book sitting upon his desk, he hadn’t seen this color as chat noir, but it was brilliant. Slowly stalking over to the book, he picked it up and read the little label that defined its color.

Red

He continued staring, taking in everything he could about red from the book’s cover. He remembered what was said about red: red was the color of blood, roses, and fire. It was most allegorically used to represent anger or love. _I love this color_ , he thought with happiness spreading through him. A smile crawled its way up his face at another thought, _ladybugs were red_ , in a flash he turned towards Plagg.

“I-is Ladybug my soulmate?” He gasped out excitedly at the sudden realization.

“You didn’t figure that out before?” Plagg chortled, flying about to find something to munch and regain his energy on, “I figured you would have known right as the transformation wore off and you could see the full color spectrum instead of just half,” He continued matter-of-factly.

“...” Adrien frowned at Plagg statement, “But, I can’t see the colors Chat Noir could see,” he whined.

“...What?” Plagg zipped around and scrunched his face at the concerned-looking Adrien before him.

“I can’t see green anymore,” he stated nervously picking up the pen next to him labeled “green”, green was the color of life, and everything that grew, Adrien recognized that much when he first saw green as Chat noir. He had loved seeing it, but now, “It's just grey again.”

Plagg said nothing and continued to stare at Adrien with the weird look on his face. They both stayed still until Plagg seemed to come to a realization and relax his face. Adrien immediately jumped forward with curiosity.

“What? What is it? Is something wrong with me?” He cried out at the kwami.

“No, no, kid,” Plagg reassured him with a curious grin, “Do you have a visible light scale to check which colors you can, and cannot see?”

“Yes, of course,” Adrien scooted to his computer screens.

He lit them up revealing the light spectrum background, one end of it lit up while the rest remained oddly less colored. He recognized the red like his book, it blended into another color he didn’t recognize, and dulled into a color that looked similar to one he had seen before as chat noir. All compulsion to continue what he was doing was lost as he admired the colors before him and how they blended so nicely together. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

“...Kid?” Plagg asked drawing Adrien out of his stupor.

“Right, right!” He yelled before pulling up an online color test.

A few clicks of the test and Adrien learned that he could only properly see two colors from the whole light spectrum, red and orange, the rest were faded hues of red apparently. He frowned, why could he only see half of the colors he should be able to after meeting his soulmate? What did it mean? Was something wrong with him? Leaning back in his chair, Adrien pouted over the thought; that certainly wasn’t fair, was it? He leaned forward and tapped his question into a search engine. The computer refreshed itself to reveal large amounts of articles on the topic of only being able to see a limited spectrum. Two words caught his eyes immediately as they were plastered on every source: multiple soulmates.

Adrien nearly fell out of his chair, multiple soulmates? As in more than one person he was destined to spend his life with? Could he really be so blessed in his life, to be loved by more than one person? It was unbelievable, it was incredible, and it was a terrifying concept. He couldn’t wipe the smile from his face.

Adrien turned back to Plagg who was looking at the screen before looking at the disbelieving teen before him.

“Not very common among miraculous wielders. You and Ladybug are pretty lucky. ‘Wonder who else it could be.” Plagg pondered.

Adrien jumped up at Plagg’s words, “I-I need to tell Ladybug!” He yelled running around.

“Not before you get me something to eat kid!” Plagg grumbled floating over to the antsy teen. “You won’t be able to find her like this, she doesn’t know who you are yet,”

“RIGHT AWAY! WE NEED TO SEE HER AGAIN AND TELL HER RIGHT AWAY!” Adrien grabbed Plagg with excitement, squeezing him in his hand, before launching out of his room to get proper food.

* * *

 

Being Ladybug was weird, it was responsibilities, magical nonsensical stuff, and more of her bad luck getting the best of her.

Not only that but Marinette could no longer see color, she apparently saw what a ladybug could see, black and white, it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, just, weird. She had always been able to see some colors, she had known Alya since she was a baby, and met Nino only shortly after in their primary school.

The thought had never occurred to her before that this is what most people had grown up in their life seeing. Marinette sighed falling onto her bed, eyes shut and rubbing her temple, while listening to Tikki’s congratulations and munches on the cookie Marinette had out. She was trying to keep her mind focused on the more pressing superhero incident at hand. She turned to look at Tikki ready to question her but stopped when she actually caught sight of the kwami.

Marinette gasped before launching herself towards Tikki and getting a better look at her. The kwami was a color Marinette had never seen before, the color Marinette knew she could not see for so long. Tikki was red.

Red! The color Marinette had been waiting years to see, the color that her, Nino, and Alya’s “other”, their final soulmate, would give her.

Oh and what an incredible color it was! Bright and blending with everything in her room, Marinette couldn’t believe the one color she had been missing out on was so beautiful.

“...A-” Tikki began before Marinette interrupted her.

“Your red!” She squealed.

Tikki was taken aback by the outburst but smiled brightly once the words sunk in, “Yes, yes I am! You can see color now?”

“Ohlala! This means...this means...” Marinette repeated trying to keep her thoughts straight.

“This means Chat Noir is your soulmate!” Tikki filled in happily, “It’s happened before, Ladybug and Chat Noir miraculous wielders tend to have linked souls throughout their many lifetimes.”

“This means...” Marinette continued, barely listening to the second half of Tikki’s explaining, “Chat Noir is our other...”

“Yes-eh,” Tikki stopped and looked at Marinette in confusion, “‘Our?’”

“Alya and Nino, my other soulmates,” Marinette explained as her face dropped, “H-how am I going to explain this to them?!?”

“You have... more than one soul mate?” Tikki was unable to move on from the fact.

“Yes, three, Alya, Nino, and now... Chat Noir,” Marinette breathed, “But-how am I going to tell Nino and Alya that I found our other? And that he and I are the new superheroes when we’re supposed to keep it secret. And how do I tell him about his other soulmates without giving away my identity? I... I only just met him! I can go and spoil the whole of our secret, th-there are too many risks!”

“Marinette please calm down!” Tikki yelled, effectively cutting off Marinette’s rant and leaving her as a panting mess.

“Tikki, this is all too fast, what am I supposed to do?” She murmured.

“I’ve never encountered a problem like this,” Tikki answered regretfully, “What you decide to do with your soulmate-sss, is entirely up to you, I cannot intervene in that fate.”

Marinette brought her arms over her head, that was not the answer she wanted. This was too much! This was too fast, meeting their other was one thing, and being Ladybug was one thing, but her and him being superheroes and needing to keep their identities secret from each other and their soulmates was an entirely different thing. It was something she could not handle.

Marinette’s thoughts were cut short by her phone dinging with a message from Alya, along with several others that had been sent since the start of her Ladybug business. The guilt of keeping this level of a secret crawled through her as she slowly picked up the phone and unlocked it. The background picture of her, Nino, and Alya together lit up the screen. She stared at Nino’s hat in the picture, it was red. The same red hat he had worn for years with the promise that when she met their other she would be able to see something red and know it was red.

She turned her gaze to the matching blue, green, and red bracelets they all wore together, the three visible light cones that they’ve yet to see. The three visible light cones that their other, the Chat Noir, would give to them, and they to him in return. There was a hope that they would all meet their other together at the same time. But now that hope seemed foolish in comparison to the way things had actually happened.

She pulled herself from her thoughts and opened Alya’s messages. There were so many, all in capitals, all about Ladybug and Chat Noir and only occasionally broken by videos she had caught of the two in action. Marinette scrolled through the onslaught of messages to the most recent one, a video where she could clearly see Chat Noir standing next to a reporter. She read over Alya’s caption, “They’re soulmates and just met isn’t that adorable!” Sighing, Marinette clicked the video already sure she knew what it was about.


	2. Orange

Chat noir jumped from rooftop to rooftop, just waiting for her to come out and see him after finding the message he left with the reporters. Her, Ladybug, his soulmate, his first soulmate. The thought sent another excited tingle through his chest. Any moment now, any moment she would find him and they could rejoice in having found each other, he could inform her of what he knew about the multiple soulmates, maybe she already knew who they were, and they could...

He stopped moving, they could reveal each other’s identities? He wasn’t even sure if she would be okay with that, they only just met, and their meeting was not the most conventional.

Chat shoved the thought from his head and focused on the landscape before him. Paris in color was truly a magnificent sight to behold. He loved the green plants sitting on so many balconies, and the soft yellow spreading through the evening sky was just as incredible as so many poets had made it out to be. There was a sound behind him, and he turned, delighted to find exactly who he expected there.

Her. Ladybug. Clad in her red suit that he couldn’t see now but would be able to when he eventually released his transformation. She looked nervous as she shifted her weight from side to side on the rooftop, and rightly so, they had a heavy conversation before them. Chat hoped he would be able to lighten it up however he could. He didn’t want to make his soulmate feel uncomfortable.

“You got my message I see,” He purred.

“I did,” She gave a small smile that made his heart race.

“So…” Chat began, but stopped when he realized he didn’t really prepare himself for what he was going to say to her.

“So,” She repeated back awkwardly.

He took a deep breath and squared his shoulders, “We’re soul mates,” He stated matter-of-factly.

“Indeed we are, but um…” She trailed, Chat knew what it was she was going to say.

“But, we have other soul mates,” He finished.

“What color can you see?” She asked out of the blue, it startled Chat but he smiled.

“Red, yourself?” Ladybug smiled a very cheerful smile at the response, she was relaxing, he was glad.

“Red as well,” She moved to sit down on the roof and Chat happily moved to sit next to her.

“It’s a beautiful color isn’t it?”

“Indeed it is,” She laughed in a way that made Chat feel euphoric. He was so glad that she was one of his soul mates, she was absolutely perfect.

“Though I can’t see red right now.” Chat decided to inform her, maybe she had something similar.

“Really?”

“Really,” He awkwardly tried to explain, “I asked, and apparently while in costume I can only see the colors that a cat can see, green, yellow, and purple. Though. I suppose that’s better than not seeing any color like before.”

“Hmmm, I have something similar, but, of course, for a ladybug’s vision. And ladybug’s can’t see color at all, so it’s just like I’ve met no soulmate at all,” Ladybug looked off at her curious explanation, she talked as if seeing all grey was a first experience in itself, it was magical how she did so.

“So we can only see “one” color as of now, since we haven’t met our other soul mate,” He thought out loud, “Or-wait. Have you met our other soul mate?”

Ladybug became nervous at his question for a moment before answering him, “No, I haven’t met our other soul mates.”

“Mates?” He didn’t understand, if she hadn’t met anyone else, how did she know they had even more soul mates.

“Er, my friends have multiple soul mates as well,” She nervously explained, “So I’ve learned a lot about multiple soul mates and have done a bit of personal research as well. Humans have three cones in their eyes, each one detects the three different wavelengths of the visible light spectrum, red, green, and blue, all other colors are just hues of those three. Normally, when two soulmates meet and they are the only soulmates for each other, all three of their cones will be activated. So when someone has more than soul mate, only one of their cones will be activated with one soul mate, and because we only have three cones, multiple soul mates have been found, by many many studies, to only come in packs of four, with each of us activating a single cone for the other.”

“Wow,” Chat murmured in amazement at her knowledge of the subject, “That’s so cool.”

“It really is quite fascinating,” She answered shyly bringing her hand behind her neck at his awe.

“I can’t wait to meet our other soul mates.”

“Me either,” she replied quietly, and turned to look out on the scene before them.

They sat like that for a while, in the cool never-silence of Paris, watching the sun slowly sink below the horizon and shift the colors of the evening sky. Chat couldn’t wait to see the evening sky in full color. He couldn’t wait to see the evening sky in red, and orange as it was described by so many.

Chat wanted to stay like that for hours longer, but he knew it was getting colder and colder even with it being late winter, and there was one question he had for Ladybug that was still bothering him.

“My lady?” He cautiously broke the silence, knowing that the question he was about to ask could cause some issues between them, he had be gentle and lead up to it.

“Yes?” She quipped an eyebrow as the nickname, “Beau Chat?”

Chat felt himself shy and giggly at the nickname she clearly made up on the spot simply to have a name. She really thought him beautiful? He shook his head, he was getting off track.

“I am so happy to finally found you, my soulmate, and for you to be such an incredible person from what I have seen in our brief encounter, but as superheroes, that is the only way we can see each other, briefly. And I would love to know you more than just through brief encounters; I would love to get to know you.”

Ladybug grew more and more conflicted at each word of his request, and Chat knew that he had asked her too much. He was about to take it back but she stopped him before he could.

“Chat, I understand the importance of being with your soul mate and getting to know them, but I also understand the importance of having a secret identity, and keeping it a secret. And I know you want to know me, but you don’t, and I don’t know you, we’ve only just met, and I don’t want to put either of us in danger because we were too imprudent and revealed each other’s identities before either of us are really ready,” Chat felt increasingly dejected at each of Ladybug’s logical shut downs, she seemed worried about his reaction though and continued talking, “That being said, I do want to get to know you, you’re my soulmate, and from what I’ve seen before, you’re an absolutely amazing person.”

Chat felt himself lift at her compliments, she was too nice.

“So let’s make a bargain, I’ll give you my phone number. That way we can stay in touch outside of our costumes but not actually have to reveal who we are underneath them, for now.”

Chat smiled at her proposition, he could live with that, especially with the use of “for now,” which meant that later they could tell their true identities. There was potential and he was more than happy to latch onto that potential. Ladybug reached around but stopped when she must have realized that she didn’t have back pockets to hold something like a phone.

“You didn’t bring you phone along, didn’t you?” He laughed gently at her expression.

“Well did you?” She frowned.

“Uhh, no. I didn’t think about it, and I don’t think I would be able to carry it with these pockets,” He said looking down at the small pockets on the abdomen of his suit.

“Lucky you, I don’t even have pockets,” She looked down and around at her super hero suit, she was right, “I don’t even have a piece of paper.”

Chat frowned before remembering his little baton. He pulled it out from behind him and happily pushed the button to make it open for him.

“Hey! These things act as little communicators for us, right?” Chat excitedly asked her, showing the little screen that was exposed from his baton, “So, when we head off home and have our phones with us, we can call each other on our communicators while we’re still transformed and exchange our numbers then!”

“Using pseudo super phones to exchange phone numbers, how appropriate,” She laughed in response.

“In fact it’s getting rather late, and quite cold,” Chat stood and offered his hand to her, she smiled in response and happily took his hand and allowed for him to hoist her up, “So, my lady, I bid you goodbye and eagerly await your call,” he waggled his baton from side to side while walking backwards.

“And I you,” She responded and pulled her yo-yo out from her hip to swing away in a most fantastic manner. Chat watched her in amazement until he could no longer see her.

* * *

 

Marinette’s heart had been ramming the entire way back and didn’t slow didn’t slow down until their number exchange had ended and she was able to release her transformation. She flopped onto her bed with a loud thump and a dramatic sigh. Tikki had swirled out of her earrings and settled herself onto one of the many pillows that adorned Marinette’s bed. Marinette wanted to lay where she was and never move again, but she knew she should probably get something for Tikki and herself to eat, as they had been out for a long time.

Marinette’s phone buzzed and she slowly dragged herself up to see the message she expected from Chat to be there. A cheerful “Bonjour my lady,” was plastered on the front of her phone and she quickly wrote a “Bonjour Chat” in response before adding his number to her contacts. When she was done she closed her conversations window only to be greeted by her background picture of her, Alya, and Nino.

“Uuuugh!” She sighed and tossed her phone onto her bed while slumping down onto the ladder that led up to her bed. How could she do this to Alya and Nino? How could she do this the Chat? She felt like such a sorry excuse for a person, who definitely didn’t deserve three wonderful soul mates like themselves.

“Are those you’re other soul mates?” Tikki asked from up on Marinette’s bed.

“Yes,” Marinette answered in reference to her phone background, “Those are the wonderful people I lied about and will probably lie to in the coming day and who clearly don’t deserve to have someone as terrible as me as a soul mate.”

“While I wouldn’t have necessarily done exactly the same thing as you if I were in a similar situation, I can’t blame you for doing what you did in order to protect you loved ones,” Marinette groaned at Tikki’s response, stars above she sounded just like her mother.

“Can I return the miraculous and get my superhero-free, uncomplicated life back?”

“No,” Tikki answered bluntly, which received another groan from Marinette.

“Fine,” She responded dejectedly, “I guess I’ll go get you something to eat.”

“Why thank you Marinette,” Tikki responded in a sweet tone that felt smug to Marinette in her current bothered state of being.

She wondered what Chat’s Kwami was like, they couldn’t be as unhelpful as Tikki was could they?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yeah, fun facts about the eye and the visible light spectrum. I know there’s a fourth cone that only a very small percentage of the female population has, and an even smaller percentage of women who’s fourth cone partially works, and an even SMALLER percent of women with a fully functioning fourth cone and can see a very full and beautiful spectrum of visible light colors. But were going to pretend that, for the sake of this AU, this fourth cone just doesn’t exist.


	3. Juane

Marinette had felt bad all day at school. She had felt bad the minute she laid her eyes on Alya and Nino and saw them in full color. They were absolutely radiant. Marinette had seen for the first time in real life that Alya’s hair was dyed so that it blended into a red color that was absolutely stunning. Nino’s hat was brighter in person than the picture on her phone could ever show. Marinette had to force herself to stop staring and admiring them multiple times.

She couldn’t help but feel greedy at being able to see them like this while they were still limited in the colors they could see. She looked at Nino’s shirt, blue, the color he could not see. He had yet to know the beauty of the sky or the sea.

Marinette felt selfish.

She looked over to the Alya’s bracelet that Nino and Marinette had made for her, green, the color that she could not see. She had yet to know the beauty of life and the plants around her, to see the vividness of spring.

Marinette felt selfish.

Something deep within her wanted to tell them about Chat Noir, but something stronger would immediately smash down the thought when it would surface. She couldn’t tell them, it could risk their safety, if anyone knew either her or Chat’s identity, she and Chat risk themselves and their loved ones getting hurt. Marinette did not want Alya or Nino or any of her family and loved ones to get hurt.

Marinette could hardly focus the whole school day. Between her relishing in seeing the world and her classmates in full color, Alix had such bright hair though Marinette could not recall what color it was supposed to be, and her dwelling in shame at being able to see every single enamoring color of the visible light spectrum while Alya, Nino, and Chat could not.

Chat had not contacted her all day, which she was rather surprised at, considering how eager he was to meet her and get her contact information. Though she supposed he must have had school as well.

At the end of the school day, Marinette, Alya, Nino went to hang out, as they normally did. Marinette at first wanted to refuse, to allow herself some time to once again assess her situation and wallow in her self-pity, but eventually she obliged, and followed her soul mates to Nino’s home. It was then that she heard her phone chime, that must have been Chat, what timing. She ignored it for now.

* * *

 

Alya, Nino, and Marinette all sat in a circle on the floor of Nino’s bedroom, quietly snacking and listening to Alya excitedly talk about the blog for Ladybug she had just established over the weekend. She called it the LadyBlog and Marinette couldn’t help but find it charming.

“I am now the official reporter of all things Ladybug!” Alya happily announced and showed Nino and Marinette. Marinette felt silly that her own soul mate was such a big fan of her, if only she knew otherwise.

“Don’t you think you’re rushing into this?” Nino questioned giving her a pointed look.

“Ridiculous. I fully believe in the abilities of Ladybug and Chat Noir. I was there when the whole thing happened you know. I caught it on video,” That was right, Alya was there, it was either luck or not that she didn’t meets Chat’s eyes. Nino groaned at Alya’s proud retort.

“Yes, I know, I’ve seen it, and I saw how you nearly died in it. That was not okay, it was terrifying to watch what you had caught on video of that moment.”

Marinette remembered that, how Alya was pinned against the car. It was _absolutely_ terrifying and Marinette never, ever wanted to see her like that again.

“But I didn’t, and you know why? Because Ladybug was there!”

“No, Alya, I’m going to have to agree with Nino on this one,” Nino stuck his tongue out at Alya, she sent back a glare whilst Marinette rolled her eyes at them, “We’ve seen Ladybug in action an instance of one time, she could turn out to be a real scoundrel.”

Nino gave her a curious look, he wasn’t quite expecting that response “Scoundrels? You’re really going to go so far as to call Ladybug and Chat Noir scoundrels?”

“We never know,” Marinette answered with a shrug. Chat Noir, that’s right, he had texted her. She reached around to her phone in her book bag.

“Well I think you two need to have a little more faith in Paris’ two newest protectors,” Marinette chuckled as she pulled out her phone, Alya sounded like the news casters.

“Well _I_ think you should have a little more need for self-preservation,” Nino said while standing up to grab something else to drink.

She heard Alya chuckle with an “Aww he cares” before continuing back to her laptop. Marinette pressed the button to her phone and watched it light up. Chat’s message was front and center “Bonjour my lady. My lessons are done and I have a break for now, how are you?” Marinette wanted to smile but kept her face straight in order to avoid Alya’s curiosity.

She turned down the audio on her phone and quietly tapped out a message to Chat. “I’m doing fine. My classes are done as well and I’m hanging out with a couple of my friends listening to them talk about us.”

The reply was quick, “Oh and what are they saying about us? How much they admire us?”

She quietly typed back a response, the only sound between Alya and her being the clacking of laptop keys from Alya. “A bit like that. One thinks we are undeniably fantastique, the other is a little skeptical about us.”

A moment and he replied with “I guess we’ll have to prove how great we are then, oui?”

Marinette typed out an “Indeed” in agreement before another message pinged her phone, “I am sorry you didn’t respond a bit earlier, we would have had more time to talk. I have to go to work. See you eventually.”

 _Work?_ Marinette thought giving an apologetic goodbye before setting her phone aside, _What work could Chat be doing? A family business?_ Marinette let a small smile play on her lips at the thought, they may have had more in common with each other than she presumed.

Nino came back up and gave a fruity drink to Alya and Marinette, both of them acknowledging him with a thank you, before lying down on the ground with Marinette and curling up next to her. She leaned into Nino, he felt warm. It always gave her a fluttery feeling being next to him.

She turned her head slightly so that she could look at him again and took in every piece of him that was beautiful and full of color. Gosh she could stare at him all day. She smiled and leaned closer into him giving him a kiss when he was done sipping his drink, he tasted fruity.

“You’re very pretty, you know,” She murmured lazily to him.

He smiled in response and kissed her back in a thank you.

“What brought this on?” Alya asked peering over her laptop screen.

“I just,” Marinette pondered the question, she didn’t want to tell them that they were gorgeous to look at in color, though one part of her did, because they were, “Like looking at both of you, a lot.”

Nino gave a light chuckle at Marinette’s answer and gave her another kiss on the cheek.

“You’re so gay,” Alya laughed at their affection but frowned barely, in a way only her soul mates could detect, at her lack of receiving the affection.

“You can come and join us when you’re done with the Ladyblog,” Nino simply retorted.

Marinette watched the conflict in Alya’s dazzling eyes and found it rather humorous how she slowly closed her laptop with a huff and made her way across Nino’s room to where Marinette and he were laying comfortably together. Alya was rewarded with a kiss from both of them for her efforts before they all just curled together in warmth and happiness and love.

Marinette wanted to revel in the feeling for as long as she could, before she inevitably ruined it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I shit you not this chapter and two other chapters have the phrase “very gay” in their chapter descriptions from my outline. I had to stop writing this several times because I’m such a gay nerd who can’t handle the shit I write.  
> I didn’t have a lot for this chapter, it was more just transitional and relationship establishing, and definitely not shippy gay shit. *sweat* However if you enjoyed any piece of this chapter please drop a comment saying so!


	4. Vert

In the coming months Marinette had found out a variety of things about her soul mates. She was always eager to learn to learn as much about them as she could, but in this learning process had come some information she never wanted to know.

Through phone conversations and dangerous akuma fights Marinette had learned that Chat Noir was exciting and odd, and grew up in an estranged setting. He had an affinity for terrible puns that made her feel like both bowing over with laughter and groaning so loudly that one couldn’t hear her eyes roll out of her head.  He was an expert at balancing serious with casual and it made him an excellent partner to work with. He was completely reliable and hopelessly romantic, bringing her small gifts whenever he could after learning something new about her.

She learned that he had a taste for fine things but without realizing that there were other options for things that weren’t quite as fine. It made Marinette curious about his surroundings. Did he come from a wealthy family? She became more suspicious as she learned that he was homeschooled and work a job that he referred to as “A family job that isn’t typical for a family and garnered a lot of attention from people outside of the family.” She wondered why he didn’t just tell her what his family did, he knew that her family owned a bakery, would she know who he was if he told her?

It made her worry about him, he was lonely, she could tell, and was unaware of how things worked in the real world. Her worry didn’t reside when she learned how he resented his father for sheltering him too much and not allowing him to go to public school. She tried to make him feel better about his inexperience in the world, and keep him from feeling lonely as much as she could. She tried to talk down public school whenever it came up in their conversations, it was easiest to talk about how terrible some of her classmates (Chloé) were. However there seemed little else she could do to help him, she greatly disliked being unable to help her soulmate.

Yet Chat’s composure whenever they faced an akuma remained ever strong, he never let the things that bothered him underneath come out during the fight. Marinette couldn’t help but admire him for it.

* * *

 

Marinette also unfortunately learned a thing or two about Alya, for one, Nino was right, she had little regard for self-preservation.

She was constantly on the scene whenever a new akuma emerged and it was quite nerve wracking for Marinette to see her soul mate so close to danger without any source of protection or ability to fight back. She had to admit though; it was rather romantic too, getting to save Alya like that constantly. In all honesty that was what really made Marinette feel like a superhero, being able to save her loved ones.

Marinette had truly learned how much of a pain it was to keep Alya and Chat from meeting each other’s eyes because of Alya’s constant reporting. And she had learned of all the technicalities that that counted as “looking your soul mate in the eyes without actually looking them in the eyes.” The fact that Alya constantly had her phone up to film the actions of Ladybug and Chat noir’s endeavors had saved Marinette more than enough times. And she had found many an inventive way to prevent two people from looking each other in the eyes, leading to just as many awkward conversations during and afterwards.

Marinette had also learned in the most painful way that one cannot meet their soul mate when consumed by the anger of Hawkmoth’s akuma.

Seeing Alya become engulfed with rage and become an akuma was worse than seeing her pinned against the car when Marinette was first acting as Ladybug. It had been undeniably heartbreaking for her and Nino, and Marinette nearly broke down during that fight. When it was over she held Alya tighter than she ever had before as Ladybug and made sure that she got home safely as soon as possible.

Chat had questioned Marinette a lot after that attack. He knew something was wrong then, but she couldn’t really tell him why that particular attack had disturbed her so much. This unfortunately led to Chat being more and more curious about the reporter girl and led to Marinette having to work even harder to prevent them from making eye contact. She was all too aware that a public soul mate reveal was much more dangerous than a private reveal.

Which begged the question from both Chat and Tikki as to when she was actually going to reveal anything?

Marinette had no idea.

She had become very close to Chat in the few months since their first meeting, and Marinette had come to undeniably love him as he did her. She just wasn’t ready, she kept telling them and herself, but the question always followed in her head “Would she ever be ready?”

She kept telling herself that she would, in just another week or month, just a bit more time. Whenever it came down to it though, she couldn’t bring herself to say anything, not after seeing Alya like that.

She afraid that it could happen again, to Nino, or Chat, or even Alya again.

Every time Marinette had an itch to tell Chat about her identity and about their soul mates she couldn’t help but think of how he would react. After so much time of keeping them apart he would undeniably become angry at her actions. Possibly even angry enough to be turned by an Akuma, and Marinette knew that if that had happened she wouldn’t be able to stop him. Not without him by her side, she needed him. She undeniably and irrevocably needed Chat in every fight, what would she do if she was fighting him? Probably break down for real.

So Marinette stayed quiet, for the thought of how her situation could harm her and her soulmates scared her far more than the strain it had put on her and Chat’s relationship as of recent. He was getting antsy, and while he respected her wishes and kept his distance, she knew that he was putting forth a lot of effort to contain himself.

It was a vicious cycle that could only result in disaster for Marinette, but she couldn’t think of anything else to do, so she let it continue and boil.

* * *

 

The past few months had been unbelievable for Adrien. He finally had a way to visit the outside on his own terms and get to really understand and experience it. Getting to fight monsters and know more about his soul mate was simply icing on the cake.

He found Ladybug fascinating, she was strong, wise, energetic, and witty. She found beauty in everything she saw and rarely hid how she felt towards people. He learned that she worked in a bakery with her family and always smelt faintly of pastries because of it. Ladybug was undeniably beautiful in every way and Adrien had fallen hopelessly in love with her. And he had noticed with much happiness that she was in love with him too.

Which had begun to bother him as of recent. He had learned much about who she was, but he still didn’t know _who_ she was. He had no name aside from Ladybug and didn’t know of the beautiful face that undoubtedly remained behind her mask. They had yet to reveal their true identities to each other and he was starting to get worried.

She was afraid to tell him who she was, he had figured out that much, but why? What was she scared of? What could she be afraid of? That he wouldn’t like who she was under the mask, doubtful, she found her just as exciting over the phone as when they were fighting akumas. And Adrien made sure to emphasize this point to her whenever it came up, but she remained ever mysterious. He couldn’t think of what could possibly be holding Ladybug back, and it had infuriated him to no end.

He wanted to be there for her, he wanted to be there _with_ her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally I was going to leave out the bit about Alya being akumatized because I couldn’t get around the fact that she and Adrien would have to had made eye contact then, until I realized it’s pretty fucked up to meet your soulmate while you’re an akuma. And I wanted to make Marinette hurt. >: 3c


	5. Bleu

Adrien had been highly strung the entire way he ran for the school. Yesterday, during the same stunt, his father managed to catch him just as he had reached the building and made for Adrien’s immediate return home. He was watched closely by Nathalie for the rest of that day. But today, today was different, he most certainly wouldn’t be caught as Chat Noir.

He landed gently on the roof of the school building and smoothly came down its side making sure no one saw him as he landed in the bush. He released his transformation and tried as casually as he could to walk away from the bush and around the corner to the front of the school.

“I question your need to attend something as tedious as school,” Adrien heard Plagg groan from his bag.

“You’ve seen how my homeschooling is Plagg, I want something more than that, I want to be around other people-“

“Adrien!”

He jumped from his place at the school’s first step at the sound of Nathalie’s voice. He turned to see her standing just out of the car on the sidewalk with the car running and the door still open.

No. No no no no no! He was sure he wouldn’t be caught this time! He left early and made sure to move fast just for that purpose.

“Adrien don’t do this,” Natalie commanded, he watched concern washed her features, “Your father will be furious.”

Adrien felt his toes curl and his back stiffen as he found himself at this crossroad. He wanted to go to school, he wanted this more than anything. What was so wrong with that? He felt himself waver and inch towards the school, he could easily disobey, _disobey._ But he also knew that that school wouldn’t protect him from his father making the Gorilla forcibly remove him from school. He couldn’t win.

Nathalie put her hand on Adrien’s shoulder and he felt himself jump from the contact. When did she make her way over to him? She added pressure and began to slowly pull him back to the car. One part of Adrien wanted to dig his heels in to the ground, to stop, fight, and cry like a toddler, but the sensible part of him managed to drag his feet to the car until he and Nathalie sat in it. There, a screen of Adrien’s father was poised on the back of the chair to stare at him and pass his mental judgements; Adrien elected to look out the window at the school, brooding, and wait for the car to start moving.

“Adrien,” He heard his father say lowly, Adrien avoided eye contact.

“Yes?”

“What you did was reckless and dangerous, sneaking off against my order and heading to the school on your own,” Adrien barely paid attentions to what his father was blabbering on about, instead choosing to wonder why the wasn’t car moving, “You will never, I say, never go back there again... without your bodyguard,” Adrien perked up, did his father just say what he thought he said? “He will drop you off and pick you up every day. Nathalie has offered to organize you a new schedule. You'll be continuing your music, Chinese, and fencing classes, and your photo shoots.”

Adrien turned to his face his father. That was it? It seemed like a trick, but stars above Adrien would take it!

“Absolutely!” Adrien cried out as he nearly sprang out of the car and went sprinting towards the schools open doors.

He felt euphoric as he took in everything that he could of the school. There were people everywhere, new friends everywhere, all in lovely shades of red. Adrien ran and he ran, admiring everything about the grand building around him and not paying attention to the specifics of where he was going until he slammed right into someone.

“Hey!” He heard them yell as they toppled right over each other.

“Oh!” Adrien quickly collected his thoughts and immediately made to scramble off of the other person, awkwardly sitting on the ground next to them, “Oh, I-I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you there.”

“Just watch where-” But they stopped as they whipped around and stared at Adrien in the eyes, and he saw it.

Adrien heard himself gasp softly as he saw everything light up in a new color. A new beautiful color that Adrien had never seen before. He watched as the boy’s shirt lit up in the most glamorous color that he was most certain was called blue.

Blue, the color of the sky and the ocean and the seas, lakes, and rivers. It was the color of sadness and calmness, and represented life through water. It was enamoring, the brightness of this boy, no his other soulmate’s, shirt and how everything lit up together with it. He looked around and saw how beautifully the blue blended in with the red he had from Ladybug to create the beauty of purple. Purple, it was the color of royalty, and Adrien felt like king of the world!

“You’re our other,” He heard his soulmate whisper across from him. Adrien brought his eyes back from their surroundings to look at his soulmate once again, even in the contrasting colors of blue and red, only blended by some purple, Adrien found him to be beautiful.

“You-”

“You’re our other!” His soulmate exclaimed grabbing Adrien’s shoulders and lifting them both up into a hug.

Adrien couldn’t help but let a laugh bubble through him as his soulmate held him and swung him around.

After a moment of spinning, they slowed down and Adrien was put down. He had a moment to collect his thoughts from the sudden excitement.

“I-I’m Adrien,” He quietly introduced and offered his hand as a greeting.

His soulmate stared at the hand as if it was a foreign object and Adrien felt nervous at his hesitation. Not a moment passed before he pushed aside Adrien’s hand and pulled him into another embrace.

“My name is Nino, Nino Lahiffe,” he introduced as he pulled away. Nino, what a wonderful name.

Nino laughed as he brought his hand to his head, “Oh my stars, I can’t believe I’m the first one to find our other!”

Adrien was about to laugh with him when something occurred to him, “Our?” Did Nino know their fourth soulmate?

“Yes, you and I, we have more than one soulmate. So instead of seeing all colors of the rainbow when you meet your soulmate, you only get one. Come with me, you need to meet Alya and Marinette, then you can see every color,” Nino exclaimed, grabbing Adrien’s hand and pulling him to a set of stairs in the corner of the open room.

Alya _and_ Marinette?

Five soulmates? No, Ladybug said soul mates come in packs of fours. She had said that she didn’t know their soulmates either, and… and she couldn’t lie to him.

Adrien was trying to keep himself calm at the peculiar revelation as he followed Nino up the stairs and to the entrance of a room. Though the fact of the matter was that while Ladybug couldn’t lie to him he hoped, she could keep truths from him. Truths like her name and her real identity, and their soulmates? Adrien felt his body shake for a moment before they entered the classroom and he was temporarily distracted by thankfully Chloé of all people.

“Adrien!” She cried out in excitement and ran over to hug Adrien.

But of course, he had dealt with lies all his life, he thought as he hugged his childhood friend back. Chloé actively lied to get what she wanted, his father had lied to Adrien and hundreds of others an innumerable amount of times. But the thought of his soulmate lying to him but a sour taste in his mouth, they were supposed to be his saving grace were they not? His break from all the lies? Chat Noir had taken that from him though, the minute he needed to keep his identity secret.

“Oh I was so worried when you didn’t show up yesterday!” Chloé had let go of him and continued on whilst Adrien barely listened, too focused on his own internal monolog, “I had told everyone that you were going to be here, and then you didn’t show and I looked like a fool. And I was so worried because you really wanted this but then you weren’t answering your phone.”

Chloé looked at him indignantly, waiting for an answer. What was she saying? Something about phones? “Yeah, um, my father took my phone away yesterday after he caught me heading to school without his permission,” Adrien managed to offhandedly answer.

“Um, pardon,” Nino piped up beside Adrien, still holding his hand, “You know Chloé?”

“Yeah, she’s been my friend since we were little,” Adrien answered looking over to Nino’s pinched look. Adrien knew that look. It was the look someone made when they don’t like someone else you’re friendly with, the look that many gave him when he told him of his friendship with Chloé.

“I think the question of the matter is, do _you_ two know each other?” Chloé interrupted rather loudly with her own pinched look and pointed to their hands.

Adrien kept quiet, unsure of how he wanted to answer the question.

“Adrien is my, Alya, and Marinette’s soulmate,” Nino proudly answered, standing straighter and giving Adrien’s hand a squeeze.

Adrien felt little comfort from the gesture, there were those names again, Alya _and_ Marinette. He was undoubtedly going to meet them today.

Chloé visibly grimaced at the names, “Is that so?” She turned towards Adrien, “Well then, enjoy your soulmates,” She whispered harshly through her teeth before turning back towards her seat.

Chloé had long gotten over the fact that she and Adrien were not soulmates, but it was very obvious that she was irked by the fact that he was soulmates with someone she despised. Adrien wasn’t sure what to do to make it better, though he still wasn’t sure what to do about his soulmates to begin with. During that whole exchange he had yet to be introduced to either of the elusive Alya and Marinette and he was beginning to grow tense.

Someone from behind griped at them.

“Alright if you’re gonna stand around at least don’t do it in front of the door way!”

Adrien and Nino jumped out of the way. Nino smiled and let go of Adrien’s hand while Adrien was bothered by how familiar the voice was. Did he know someone else who went to this school? No, Adrien didn’t know that many other people.

“Alya,” Nino happily called out, looking at the grumbly person next to Adrien. He felt his stomach drop at the name, this was it.

“Oh Nino, Marinette just sent me a message saying she’s not going to come in today, her cold from yesterday got worse,” Alya casually informed Nino.

“Oh, that’s rather unfortunate, because I have someone for you two to meet,” Nino responded and grabbed Adrien by the shoulders and turned him to face away from Alya just a bit more, albeit to add more suspense to the surprise.

Adrien felt himself tense, knowing when you were going to meet your soulmate was much more nerve-wracking than not knowing. He was excited, yes, but he was too terrified to acknowledge it.

She said nothing, Adrien guessed she gave a curious look by Nino’s excitement. He gently began to turn Adrien around until he was facing Alya, his other soulmate.

She looked him straight in the eyes and with it he saw the world light up again in one last color.

Green.

The color of life, the color of plants, and contrastingly enough, the color of poisons and evils. Green was best known as the color of spring and peace. It was even more bright and beautiful when he saw it as Chat Noir as it blended magnificently with blue and red to give him a fantastic range of color.

Alya brought her hands up to her mouth as her eyes widened in shock. Adrien felt himself nearly do a double take as he recognized her.

“Y-You’re the reporter girl for Ladybug and Chat Noir,” he said quietly more to himself than to anyone else.

She smiled, “Indeed I am.”

Adrien looked down, trying to assess his situation. He was sure that he had looked her in the eyes before, most certainly. Could it have been his suit that prevented them from having their colors exchanged? No, it worked for both he and Ladybug so…

Though now that he thought about it, he recalled all of the odd conversations he and Ladybug had whenever she would awkwardly shove herself between them and a multitude of other maneuvers that prevented him and Alya from ever properly exchanging conversations for more than a few seconds.

Wouldn’t Ladybug have given her a color? Adrien looked back up towards Alya. They couldn’t give each other colors, not if they already had them. It made so much sense, why Ladybug was so shaken up after having to fight the reporter girl-Alya, she was Alya the whole time, as an akuma. She-they, they had to fight their soulmate.

Alya was getting blurry in front of him. Ladybug had lied! She had lied, and Adrien felt his mind swimming at the confirmation of his suspicions. His ears were ringing and he couldn’t figure out why she would do something as horrible as lie to him about his own soulmates and keep them from meeting. And he couldn’t figure out why on Earth Alya was suddenly so blurry! What was wrong with him?

The ringing stopped when felt arms wrap around him from the front, it was followed by a soft “sshhh” and Adrien felt another body wrap around him. He was warm and felt his shaking (when had he started shaking again?) calm, if only barely.

“It’s okay to cry.”

Oh. He was crying. That was why Alya had gone blurry. How silly of him, to cry in front of his soulmates.

A moment of being wrapped in the double-sided embrace and Adrien felt better, well calmed down at least. Alya and Nino pulled away and Adrien brought his hands up to wipe his face. Alya rummaged around in her bag before offering him a tissue.

“I-I’m sorry,” Adrien finally said when he was mostly clean, “This, this is just a bit overwhelming.”

“We understand,” Nino gently laughed from behind him, “Meeting your soulmate, and finding out you have more than one soulmate can be rather overwhelming.”

But they didn’t understand, not completely. How would Adrien truly be able to explain himself?

A bell rang throughout the school.

Alya gave a look to Nino and Adrien recalled the whole reason he was here, the whole reason this had happened. He was at school, the place he had wanted to go for years. He was here to learn and make friends, and finally begin living his life how he wanted.

“That was the warning bell, we should probably sit down,” Alya began uneasily, she looked at Adrien, unsure of where he was to go. This was his class, he knew that much from Chloé’s presence.

“Um, this is my class, so… where can I sit?” Adrien softly asked Alya and Nino.

“Oh! Lucky for you, the seat next to me is open so you can sit there, if you’d like,” Nino gestured to the front row seats next to them which where currently void of any other students.

“I would like that,” Adrien managed to give Alya and Nino a weak smile, they returned it.

He quietly walked up to the seat and sat down with Nino next to him and Alya behind them. The seat directly behind Adrien was empty.

“Normally Marinette sits in the seat behind you, but she’s sick today,” Alya explained, gesturing to the empty seat.

“I’m gonna send her a message about what just happened,” Nino informed, pulling out his phone.

“No fair, I was going to do that,” Alya whined, her phone already in hand. Adrien recognized the ladybug charm hanging off of it.

Marinette, Ladybug. Could they really be the same? Adrien looked for his own phone and met Plagg’s eyes from within his bag. Plagg gave him a silent look of utmost concern as he too had realized what had conspired before him and what it all truly meant. Adrien quietly grabbed his phone and looked away from Plagg, closing the bag. He turned on his phone and quietly tapped at it until he was looking at Ladybug’s contact, he paused, unsure if he wanted to send her a message or even of what to say.

“Hey,” Alya and Nino looked up at Adrien’s murmur, “When,” He took a breath, “When someone has multiple soulmates, how many, um, how many soul mates can they have?”

Both Alya and Nino perked up at the simple question Adrien already knew the answer to. But Ladybug and the web could be wrong.

Alya piped up and gave the exact same answer as Ladybug had. Adrien simply nodded his head at the answer and quickly pulled up the same online color test he had done when he met Ladybug on his phone. He just had to be sure, to be really, really sure that Ladybug and Marinette couldn’t be two different people. He quickly tapped through the quiz.

All of it.

He could see all of it, every color. Every color of the light spectrum. There was no denying it.

Ladybug had to be Marinette.

The teacher came in as a second bell rang through the school and informed everyone that class was starting. Adrien quickly pulled Ladybug’s contact up again and typed out a single message before sending it to her and putting his phone away.

“Is your name Marinette?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter came out longer than I originally anticipated it would and I loved writing it. Although I really love making characters cry, and I love making them argue too, which is why I’m gonna have fun with the next chapter.


	6. Gris

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a dentist appointment Friday and completely forgot to post this chapter whoops.  
> Warning for some angst and swearing, if you’re not about that life then sorry.

Marinette had woken up that morning feeling like shit. Her light cold from yesterday had not gone away with sleep as she had hoped, but instead came back tenfold and left her with a small fever, a weary headache, and a nose clogged to hell and back. Despite her request to go to school, it was only the second day she couldn’t start her missing streak already, her mother insisted that she stay home and get more rest. Marinette did little to resist her mother in her weary state, instead making sure to at least send Alya a message about her attendance before curling back into bed and going to sleep. She barely heard her phone chime with a multitude of messages from down below, they could wait.

A good long nap later, some medicine to calm the fever, nose, and head, and some wonderfully warm soup from her mother, and Marinette felt much better. She was sitting at her desk wrapped in a blanket having just finished her soup when her phone chimed again. She quietly stood up and unplugged the device from its charger before crawling back up the ladder to her bed. Marinette curled into the soft blankets and adjusted herself so that she was comfortable. A quick click of the button and her phone sprung to life saying that she had messages from Alya, Nino, and Chat.

Oh good, Chat was messaging her again. She was rather worried when he didn’t respond all of yesterday to her questions about how his first day at school went. He was so excited about going and told Marinette all about all the trouble he had gone through, going behind his father’s back, to get himself up and registered for the school. Had school been a disappointment to him? Or had his father found out? She sighed unlocking her phone and clicking on Alya’s most recent message first, Chat really didn’t deserve all the strife his father seemed to give him. If only she could really be there with him.

She read the latest message from Alya.

“Prepare yourself dear, we’re coming over.”

Marinette smiled, she could always count on Alya and Nino to be there when she felt bad, how sweet of them, though how silly of them to tell her to prepare herself.

“Marinette…” Tikki whispered.

“Yes?” Marinette asked, turning to Tikki who was looking at her phone over her shoulder.

Tikki gave her a concerned look that Marinette did not understand, was something wrong?

“You…” Tikki was confused, “You’re much less concerned about this than I thought you’d be.”

 _Concerned about what?_ “Alya and Nino coming over? Why would I be concerned?”

“Did you?” Tikki’s eyes flashed to the phone for a quick moment, “Did you read them all?”

Marinette didn’t respond, instead looking back at her phone to read Alya’s earlier messages that Marinette had ignored.

“Holy shit guess who Nino and I just met.” “Our other!” “Of all days for you to be gone I CANNOT believe it’s today!” “He’s so cute you’re going to love him.” “Listen I know you’re probably sleeping so we’re not gonna come over for lunch, also our other is a giant dork who’s nervous to meet you.”

Marinette stiffened from her place in her bed. Their other.

She had met…

Marinette had quickly switched her phone conversations over to Nino. She read over the many texts he sent her that morning. They were the same as Alya’s, gushing over meeting their other.

Marinette’s finger hovered over to back button, what was Chat’s message? It couldn’t be good. Though it couldn’t be too bad either, Alya and Nino mentioned nothing about an Akuma. A couple of taps and she was staring at the single message from Chat.

“Is your name Marinette?”

He knew.

Oh shit, he _knew!_

Marinette barely had time to collect herself and do something before her mother called up for her.

“Marinette! Alya, Nino, and another young man are here to see you! I’m sending them up” Her mother sang out in a knowing tone. But she didn’t really know of the shit show that was coming up to Marinette’s room.

* * *

 

After a long day of brooding, contemplating, barely being able to actually concentrate in class, and a wonderful lunch with two of his soul mates, Adrien had confirmed one thing.

He was angry.

He was pissed beyond the stars at Ladybug, Marinette, whichever he should refer to her as now. It didn’t matter, because he was angry at her. How dare she keep him from his own soulmates, how dare she lie to his and their faces. None of them deserved that, especially Alya and Nino. How dare she do something as horrible as keep them apart from each other! And now, he was going to see her, to confront her, and deal with this problem face to face.

He felt nervous as he held Nino and Alya’s hands and followed them to the little bakery across the way from the school. How they would react, he wasn’t sure, but Marinette had to be the one to tell them, she was the one to do this. They entered the little bakery and were greeted by a short woman standing at the counter. Adrien was taken aback for a moment, the bakery was just as he pictured when Ladybug had told him she lived in a bakery, in fact he and Ladybug had entered it on a couple occasions, he did not know it was her bakery. It looked much different in full color.

The woman at the counter recognized Alya and Nino and they chat for a moment about Marinette, she must be her mother.

“Sabine,” she introduces herself to Adrien with a warm greeting.

“Um, Adrien,” He replies, timid under her perceptive gaze.

Sabine simply smiles at him and asks no questions. She leads the three of them up and into her home, calling to her daughter upstairs and giving them a little “good luck,” before heading back down to the bakery.

Good luck? He was probably going to need it.

Alya pulled them up the stairs and stopped before the little door in the ceiling. She turned to Adrien and Nino following closely behind.

“You two wait here, I going to get her ready, I’ll call you when you can come up,” Alya said before opening the door, Adrien saw a flash of pink from inside the room before Alya carefully lowered the door for a moment of privacy between them.

It was just him and Nino. Not a sound between them but their quiet breathing while waiting on the stairs.

“Are you nervous?” Nino whispered from behind Adrien.

“…Yes.”

“But?” Nino continued, he knew something was wrong.

But he was angry too, angry beyond all belief. He wanted to scream and yell and run at Ladybug demanding an answer, for him and for their soulmates.

There was a shifting of fabric and Adrien felt Nino hands rest on his shoulders, they gave a squeeze.

“It’s okay,” Nino reassured, “It’ll be great.”

 _It won’t,_ Adrien thought, keeping silent.

The ceiling door opened and Alya peeked inside with a smile, “We’re ready for you!” She sang before she hopped away from the door.

Nino gently pushed Adrien up the stairs. He took in the bright pinks and eloquent designs of the room as he made his way up the stairs before Nino brought his hands over Adrien’s eyes.

“For a surprise,” Nino whispered and guided Adrien forward before pulling him down to sit on the floor.

Adrien sat cross legged on the ground and took a deep breath waiting, hoping for some twist of luck that he was wrong, and that Ladybug didn’t lie. He heard Alya and Nino quietly count down.

“Three, two, one!” Their hands were removed from both sets of eyes.

He looked her straight in the eyes, and she him. He saw nothing. No new color, no new blend of bright beauty, just the girl before him, slightly disheveled and tired looking, with her hair out of place,  but who was undoubtedly Ladybug under the mask.

Alya and Nino had sat on both sides of them and eagerly looked between Adrien and Ladybug. Their excitement died at the unexpected expressions of their soulmates.

Ladybug… Marinette, looked genuinely afraid, and in looking at her eyes widen in fear and her back stiffen as she realized that she had been caught, Adrien felt his anger bloom, brighter and brighter until he might burst.

“Wha-“

“Can we have a moment to speak alone?” Adrien practically yelled out.

Alya and Nino shared a look of concern. They gave a short glance to Adrien and Marinette before nodding their heads and slowly getting up from where they sat on the floor.

Adrien kept his hand’s clenched and took heavy breaths to keep himself contained. He kept his eyes on Marinette as she watched Alya and Nino leave, she didn’t look back at him until he heard the door quietly close behind him.

There was a moment of silence between them, She looked unsure of what Adrien was going to say, and honestly Adrien didn’t know either, but he was going to say something. She opened her mouth to speak but he immediately interrupted her.

“What the fuck?” He growled through clenched teeth, she flinched at his words.

“I-I-”

“You what? Lied to me? Lied to them? Your own soulmates?” He was yelling now, he couldn’t help it, “I mean what the fuck? Who does that? Who lies to their own soulmates? Who keeps their soulmates apart?”

She turned away from him, looking more and more ashamed with every word.

“Chat, I-”

“Adrien! My name is Adrien! But you didn’t ever both to learn that did you? No! I just wanted to know you, to know all of the real you. And be there with you, but you just had to keep you perfect little lie all wrapped up and contained. You-you couldn’t even tell me that they existed? Tell me that you knew them but wanted to wait until you were ready to tell me who you were. Something, something to tell me that they’re real, something better than lying to me, to all three of us! You lied to us! How could you do that?”

Her eyes were wide with panic as she watched him unload all of his anger that had built up from the day.

“Well what the hell was I supposed to do?” Marinette suddenly yelled back, “Tell you everything and risk someone finding out? If anyone found out that Alya and Nino were our soulmates then they would use them against us, _he_ would threaten their lively hood to get to us. You can handle yourself, but them? They can’t! And I couldn’t bear to see either of them get hurt because of me! It was the only way I could think to protect you, all of you, I didn’t know what to do,” Her voice had gone soft, she was looking down and he saw some tears dripping down her face.

For a moment he felt bad, and was at a loss for words. She was kind of right, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t a terrible thing for her to do.

“Tell me,” She looked back up at him, words warbling and face teary, “Tell me you wouldn’t have done the same thing.”

He wanted to refute it, to instantly tell her no, he wouldn’t have done the same thing, that he wouldn’t have lied. But he _had_ been doing it, all today he had kept the truth from Alya and Nino, he didn’t tell them anything.

“That still doesn’t make it okay,” Adrien finally said.

“I-I know, I’m so sorry, but… I didn’t know what else to do.”

They were quiet for a moment, unsure of what else to say. Adrien finally spoke.

“We need to tell them. _You_ need to tell them,” He said with emphasis

“I know,” She mumbled, “But, I can’t.”

“Marinette,” He whispered, she perked up at her name finally being said and looked back at him, “You need to do this, they need to know.”

“They’ve probably been listening to this conversation the whole time,” She mumbled looking at the door behind Adrien.

“You can do this,” He needed her to focus, “Don’t worry. I’ll be here with you.”

A small smile graced her lips, Adrien felt accomplished of all things.

“I’m so glad you didn’t turn into an akuma,” She sighed.

“What?”

 _What?_ An akuma?

She became uncomfortable at his change in demeanor, “Um… One of the reason’s I didn’t tell you sooner, was, because I was scared of you becoming an akuma. I was afraid that you would get so angry that you would become consumed by Hawkmoth’s akuma. That Alya and Nino might become that angry too. And after fighting Alya…” She had a glazed look at the memory, “It was hard fighting her, but you, I wouldn’t be able to fight you, not one my own.”

Adrien hadn’t considered the possibility of that happening, and he had been angry, so, so angry, and he still was, if barely. Why hadn’t he turned into an akuma?

“I figure now would be the time to interrupt,” Plagg said zipping up from where he hid in Adrien’s bag, “You and Ladybug cannot be turned into Akuma because you have been chosen by us the miraculous, and we can protect you from the abilities of Akumas. Think of us as emotional spirit hiders.”

“But that doesn’t mean your other soulmates can’t still be affected,” Marinette’s kwami came from their own place above where they sat, answering an internal worry Marinette had at Plagg’s comment.

“Who on earth is in there with them?” Both Adrien and Marinette jumped at the sound of Alya’s voice from the door. They had been listening, just as Marinette guessed.

Both kwami returned to their hiding places again. Adrien shuffled across the floor over to Marinette’s side, he gently put his hand on her shoulder.

“We need to tell them.”

“But you heard what Tikki said, they could-”

“They won’t, at least, not for long if we can help it,” Adrien did what he could to reassure her, this couldn’t go on for any longer.

Marinette clenched her fists and took a deep breath in effort to calm herself, Adrien could tell that it did little to quell her, but at least she was making the effort.

“You can come back in now,” She finally called out with a shaky voice.

The door creaked open slowly, and Adrien saw both Nino and Alya peek their heads above the floor the examine the room. They eyed Adrien and Marinette suspiciously across the room before lifting the door all the way and coming in, Nino following Alya. They sat across from Adrien and Marinette in silence and waited.

All four of them waited and waited for someone to break the silence. After sometime Alya was the one to do it.

“I think I already know what it is, but, do you two have something to tell us?” She said with a slightly accusatory tone.

“Wel-Yes. We, we do have something to tell you,” Marinette nervously replied looking down at her hands, she took another breath and clenched her hands on her lap, “Adrien and I, well, we’ve met before just now, in fact we met several months ago.”

“Months?” He heard Nino whisper. Marinette flinched.

“And, I… I didn’t tell either of you about each other,” Both Alya and Nino were taken aback by this statement, just like Adrien had when he figured it out. He suddenly felt worry for if one of them were to become an akuma then, “I knew I should have, but, we didn’t meet in the most typical of ways. You see, uh, we… A-Adrien and I, we… we are…”

Adrien watch as she choked and stumbled over her words, she really _couldn’t_ tell them. It was aggravating and worrisome, and he knew that he had to be the one to help her.

“Marinette and I are Ladybug and Chat Noir,” He announced to his soulmates. Marinette bowed her head lower in shame.

“Really?” Nino asked, his expression was very disbelieving, while Alya had one of a shocked realization.

“Yes, it’s true,” Marinette supplied, bringing her head up slightly but still not bringing herself to look at anyone, “Adrien and I, we met as Ladybug and Chat Noir, and it wasn’t until after I released my transformation that I realized that he was our other. I-I had no idea what to do, we had to keep our identities secret.”

“Prove it,” Nino breathed out harshly, still unable to believe what she they were telling him.

Tikki and Plagg came out from their hiding places to grace their soulmates’ eyes. Nino jumped back at seeing the peculiar creatures while Alya stiffened from where she sat.

“It is a pleasure to officially meet Marinette’s other soulmates,” Tikki greeted with a bow.

“And I, the same,” Plagg said rather uninterestedly, Tikki bumped him.

“What the fuck?” Nino whispered from where he was leaning away from the kwamis.

“These are our, kwamis. They, as well as our miraculous,” Adrien pointed to his and Marinette’s jewelry as he explained, “Are how we are able to transform and have our powers. They’re our companions.”

“That’s so cool,” Alya mumbled staring intently at Tikki while her fingers twitched.

“Do not write about this information in your blog!” Tikki suddenly yelled out, pointing accusatorily at Alya, already knowing what the girl was thinking.

Alya looked down with some shame, “I, if all of what you’re saying is true, then, I can see why you were so secretive Marinette.”

“If anyone knew, who we were, that you two were our soulmates, we all would have been in danger,” Marinette was quiet as she revealed her fears to all three of them, “Hawkmoth could have used you, hurt you, to get to us and our miraculous. I couldn’t let that happen.”

Both kwami floated back to their respective miraculous wielders and settled in their laps. Adrien noticed how Tikki gave a reassuring look up to Marinette who still looked down without making eye contact with her soulmates. Nino had moved forwards a bit as he slowly relaxed to their presence.

“I wanted to protect you, and… I didn’t know the right way to do it. So, I chose the wrong way, and I ended up hurting all of you,” She paused and finally brought her head up to look between all three of them, “I don’t expect you to forgive me, but, please just know, that I am so, so, sorry for lying to you, for keeping you apart.”

Everyone was silent for a moment to let her words sink in. Nino was the first to speak.

“Marinette,” She weakly looked him in the eyes, “I don’t necessarily agree with what you did, and I’m certainly not going to forgive you right now. But, I think-no, I, I understand why you did it.”

Her shoulders shook as she looked at the ground and let a relieved smile grace her lips, “That’s all I ask of you.”

There was a moment of silence as everyone tried to figure out what to do or say next. All that need to be said was done, and it was silent consensus between all of them that they we’re not going to forgive Marinette just now, what she did was not okay, and they needed time before they could all really get over the harm her lie had caused.

“I think, the three of us should have some time on our own to talk things over,” Alya offered.

Marinette nodded her head in agreement, “My head hurts again,” She mumbled as everyone made to stand up.

Alya helped her up the ladder and into her bed, telling her to rest for now. Nino had grabbed Adrien’s hand and gave it a squeeze, and he finally felt relief at the gesture, at the realization that he was done. He met his soulmates, all of them, he revealed his identity to them, and now… he wasn’t sure. He had all the explanations he needed from Marinette, and honestly, he didn’t want to talk to her, not anymore, not for another week at least. Alya came down from the ladder and led Adrien and Nino out of the room.

She took his hand and led the two of them out of Marinette’s home, out of the building and to a small café where they could talk on their own.


	7. Violet

 Adrien, Alya, and Nino had come to the decision that their talking with Marinette would be minimal until they were comfortable enough to start engaging with her actively again. Marinette felt it was fair punishment for what she had done, though that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. Nino and Alya only gave her the most bare words and exchanges, and Adrien straight up just kept silent with her. She still spent time with them, but they talked amongst each other more than they talked with her. It felt terrible, being isolated from her loved ones, but she deserved it, so she took her punishment without complaint.

She would listen as they hung out together and learned a fantastic amount of information about each other over the next couple of days. She assessed of all the things she already knew about her soulmates, and took note of all of the things she was learning about them for the first time, mostly just Adrien, there was only so much information you could exchange as superheroes.

Hawkmoth had been silent for the past couple of days, there had been no Akuma attacks and no suspicious activity at all. Which Marinette was glad for, she knew that Adrien needed some distance from her and having to act as their superhero personas and pretend that everything was fine would be hard for both of them. But it was also nerve wracking, at any moment an akuma or something else could come and hurt any one of her soulmates. The whole issue left her on edge.

Today their class was on their own, discussing fears in order to take ideas and build their script for the eventual movie they would create and submit for a local competition. Many student’s voiced very physical things, snakes, spiders, heights and the sort. Marinette found Alya’s fear particularly interesting, the fear of people stopping her for pursuing what she wanted to do, and leading her down an unhappy lifestyle. She knew this fear was related to the constant barrage of shame many of the professional reporters gave her for reporting on Ladybug. Many of them called her an amateur and said that she should leave the reporting to the professionals, but she and Alya knew the other reporters were bothered by the obvious favoritism Ladybug showed towards her.

When the fear question landed on Marinette, she thought of saying something simple, something physical like the other students, but before she knew it, all of the truth of her fears came tumbling out to the entire class.

“I fear losing my loved ones. I fear that they may get hurt and that it would be my fault. And even if I were to try and do anything to help them, to save them, I wouldn’t be able to, not on my own. It would be futile because I can’t do anything right on my own. I fear that my destiny to fail will last the rest of my life, hurt everyone around me, and leave me to live alone,” She paused, realizing she was staring at her desk intently, her voice had been low but upon looking up at the class she saw that everyone was watching her intently for her depressing little speech.

She felt shy under their gazes but refused to turn away and risk having to look into any of her soulmate’s eyes.

“Next please,” She mumbled looking back down at her desk. A hand came from her left to barely rest on her shoulder, she dared a glance at Alya from the edge of her eye.

Alya gave her a soft sympathetic smile that made Marinette feel warm as it was a huge step in the right direction for her to be on good terms with her soulmates again, and it made her immensely happy. She had figured Alya and Nino would be more lenient for they knew her much longer and had created a strong bond between the three of them, but Adrien would take more time, she thought looking at the back of his head as Alya’s hand returned to her side.

The students were back to listing their fears, delving a bit deeper into themselves after Marinette spilled her guts to the class. When they reached Myléne the fears became lighter again as she began listing her own, monsters, snakes, creepy shadows, mysterious noises, the list when on and on and on. It seemed almost ridiculous the length of things Myléne had continued listing, until she eventually explained her little song she sang in order to calm down and not be too afraid. Chloé immediately took it upon herself to make fun of Mylene’s long, long list.

“How could you be afraid of ALL of that? If I make a loud noise will you run like a rabbit?” Chloé began taunting, Myléne’s head bowed in shame at her over sharing.

Someone tried to make Chloé stop but she got up from her seat and began to prowl around. Myléne was stiff and everyone in the class watched Chloé closely, unsure of what she was going to do next.

“So say I was a wolf,” Chloé curled her lips as she spoke low and paced “Not a _stinky_ wolf,” She sneered at Myléne, who curled more into herself looking down and away from Chloé, “I’m hungry and I’m snarling and ugly, and what do I see but an UGLY LITTLE GIRL TO EAT!” Chloé shouted as she grabbed Myléne’s shoulders from behind.

Myléne jumped at the contact and screamed, Ivan stood up from his spot and yelled at Chloé on behalf of his soulmate. She looked up at him unafraid as Myléne wrenched herself out of Chloé’s hands and went running out the door. There was complete silence from the class for a moment before Ivan huffed loudly at Chloé and went stomping after Myléne.

Everyone in the class began booing and shouting at Chloé for her mean act, she simply shrugged and sauntered over to her seat once again.

“And tell us Chloé, what are you afraid of?” Nino growled harshly, his pen tapping in his hand at the notes he had been taking from everyone for the movie, Marinette briefly caught sight of a star next to his notes on what she said.

Chloé frowned at the question, having probably been avoiding it this whole time, as she had yet to reveal her fears. She contemplated her answer in a performance like manner, “I fear a bad hair day, and my daddy losing the vote, but neither of those are ever going to happen,” She purred with a flip of her hair, “That, and nothing else.”

Everyone was about to retort Chloe’s statement, but a roar called out from the hallways, rattling the windows. There was silence as each student looked among each other in fear and question.

“What was that?” Rose whispered from her seat where she was grasping Juleka.

“Something frightening,” Sabrina whimpered in response.

“Something ugly,” Chloé hissed from where she was curled into her seat, her hands gripped the back of her seat so hard that her knuckles blanched, “Someone should go check it out.”

“Well since you’re afraid of only the two things that you mentioned, and _nothing_ else, Chloé, why don’t you go and investigate the noise?” Marinette challenged, sure that Chloé would make up an excuse as to why she couldn’t go so that Marinette could take her place and hopefully try and handle it on her own as Ladybug, no need to get Adrien involved.

“Fine! But I’m taking Sabrina and Kim with me, because it could possibly be dangerous, NOT because I’m scared!” Chloé retorted while Sabrina and Kim both nervously stood up to join her.

Shit. Chloe was prideful in the worst kind of way. Marinette cursed herself as Alix and Max began to yell about Kim’s sudden involvement, he calmed his soulmate’s outbursts and reassured them they he would be fine before trailing after Chloé and Sabrina.

Everyone was quiet and looking towards the door in anticipation while Marinette racked her brain for some way to leave on her own and figure out what was actually out there. She heard quiet murmurs from her classmates.

“Maybe we should go and get them?” “What about Ivan and Myléne?” “I hope Kim’s okay.”

A scream cut through the building and everyone jumped up.

“Alright everyone! Out of the room! We’re figuring this shit out and we’re doing it together!” Alya suddenly shouted, one foot on her desk as she pointed to the door.

There was a pause as everyone remaining considered her command. Nino and Adrien stood up right away and began to move to the door, Marinette quickly followed after them while Alya stood poised still looking over their classmates, one by one they gradually stood up and made their way out of the room. There was a gasp as they all followed behind Nino and Adrien and saw a strange goo dripping down the wall in a mess of splatters. What was worse was the layer of goo that covered the roof and the door opening.

“There’s no way out!” Was screamed, and the students huddled closer together.

Alya made her way to the front of the group, she was about to say something to them when another roar was let out, to their left they saw it, a strange purple monster slinking its way across the wall and into an empty classroom.

Various cries of “What is that?” Were let out and Alya leaned in close to Adrien, Nino, and Marinette behind them.

“An akuma,” Alya murmured to them, “We need to split up so you two can transform and handle this mess,” Marinette tried to hold back her grimace at having to make Adrien interact with her before he was ready, he most certainly wasn’t now.

Marinette took a big gulp before leaning back from their little huddle and shouting out to everyone in class, “We need to find Myléne, Ivan, Kim, Sabrina, and even Chloé. We’ll do better if we split up into two groups and spread out,” There were looks shared among those who remained of the students, unsure of her request even with Alya, Nino, and Adrien grouping around her, but Alix and Max quickly militarized and voiced their affirmations at the plan.

Marinette, Adrien, Alya, and Nino grouped up and headed off to one end of the building while Rose, Juleka, and Nathaniel followed after Alix and Max in the opposite direction, eager to find their missing soulmate.

They entered the silent library and did a quick once over to see if anyone happened to be there, it was empty. Adrien let out a sigh.

“Okay, I’m going to transform and quickly get rid of this akuma. Luckily it’s got a case of steal-itis so you can pretend that I was taken by the akuma,” Adrien informed, though it made Marinette nervous how he said it like he would take care of the akuma on his own. Plagg zipped out from his pocket while Tikki popped out of Marinette’s purse.

“Roger that!” Nino replied. No one said anything about Adrien facing the Akuma alone, because Alya and Nino knew he wouldn’t be alone, but Marinette internally fretted about how he would act.

He and Alya stood where they were in front of the door, everyone was waiting, Adrien was confused.

“Aren’t you going to go be lookout for the transformation?” Adrien finally asked what was on his and Marinette’s mind.

“Nuh-uh. I want to see what your transformation looks like first hand,” Alya answered indignantly, Nino nodded eagerly in agreement.

“Oh,” Adrien looked shy at the statement, as did Marinette, though it brought the question of “What did Adrien’s transformation look like” to the front of her mind.

She shook the thought from her head and called out for Tikki to transform her, hearing Adrien do the same shortly after her. The power and hum of the miraculous magic washed over Marinette and she opened her eyes to barely catch the end of Adrien’s transformation.

“That was so cool!” Alya and Nino cheered.

“Do you always strike a pose at the end? What does that feel like?” The questions suddenly started.

“Focus!” Chat hissed out, he didn’t look at her, “Wait a bit to join up with the group after me, stay together,” He instructed giving Alya and Nino a quick kiss before peeking his head out the door.

Chat and Ladybug slipped out of the library and made their way to the open area of the school building, both of them said nothing as Ladybug followed after Chat. He was ignoring her, it wasn’t good, but it could be worse, Marinette reassured herself. With a leap they landed in the middle of the floor level and were about to run in the direction that the other group headed off to when a scream was heard. Nathaniel, Max and Alix with Rose in tow went rushing out of a room and down the stairs.

“Wait! Wait, Juleka! It got Juleka!” Rose cried out as Alix dragged her along.

“Ladybug! Chat Noir!” Max cheered out as their group all skidded to a stop in front of Ladybug and Chat Noir.

“The akuma’s up there?” Ladybug asked pointing in the direction they had just come from.

“Yes and it got my dear Juleka, please-” Rose was cut off as Chat Noir made a leap in the direction the students came from.

“Wait Chat! We don’t know-” She realized he wasn’t listening to her, and with a small huff went rushing off after him.

With a crash they both entered the room covered in the now grey appearing goo. The akuma was nowhere to be found.

“Chat we can’t just go barreling after the akuma, we don’t know its abilities or why it’s taking people,” But he wasn’t listening, he left the room passing by her without exchanging a word or a glance in her direction.

Fine. They could do this without interacting. They were superheroes they could handle it.

They rushed down to the rest of the students standing in the middle of the building common room.

“Tell us everything that happened in there,” Ladybug commanded.

“We were looking for the akuma, it came out of nowhere and charged after us, we screamed and it just got bigger!” Nathaniel informed between nervous breaths.

“But Juleka didn’t scream because she thought the monster was cool, and it got a bit smaller? But then it took her! The monster took Juleka!” Rose finished with a cry.

“Please stay calm,” Chat said resting a hand on her shoulder.

Ladybug thought over what they said, the akuma got bigger when they screamed but smaller when Juleka, who loves all things frightening, thought that was cool. She frowned thinking, they were talking about fear in class, it was very likely that the Akuma was one of their class mates, and had abilities tied to fear. But who? Myléne or Ivan most likely, but in their brief glimpses she didn’t see any object that could contain hawkmoth’s actual akuma.

Ladybug glanced at Chat, hoping he was thinking something similar as he wouldn’t listen or talk with her if she tried to inform him. But he was looking past her, where Alya and Nino were shouting and running towards them.

“Help! The akuma! The akuma, it got Adrien and Marinette!” They shouted skirting to a stop in front of everyone and acting out of breath and frightened.

“Chat Noir, Ladybug!” Nino shouted to them, “You’re here! How did you get here?”

“We need your help!” Alya interrupted him, not so subtly giving Nino a look that told him not to ask that question, “The akuma, it got Adrien and Marinette!”

“Our soulmates,” Nino quickly added.

“Right! Our soulmates,” Alya affirmed.

Ladybug wanted to laugh, she knew they were acting, and they were bad at it. It was rather adorable watching them stumble over their words and story.

“Don’t worry the akuma will be handled,” Chat reassured also holding back his amusement, Ladybug noticed.

They calmed down, though quicker than they should have considering two of their soulmates had just been “stolen”. No one had time to think over Alya and Nino’s claims as the akuma roared again from next to the door to the basement.

They froze and watched as the akuma charged after their group, everyone looked to scatter but Ladybug and Chat leapt before them and blocked the akuma from getting anyone. It veered right hard and leapt up to the next level, shooting out a stream of goo that nailed Chat as he chased after it. It hardened immediately on contact, leaving him stuck to the floor. Ladybug was about to help him out of it but he broke himself free with his baton before she could get near him. He quickly sent her a hard look that told her everything, _don’t,_ and she shied away.

The akuma made its way to the students effectively scattering them. Ladybug saw how everyone’s panic made the akuma even bigger, confirming her suspicions to the akuma being related to fear.

Nathaniel had been cut off from everyone in their scattering, Ladybug and Chat Noir had both rushed forward to keep the akuma from getting him, but they smashed into each other. Hard and heavy they both fell to the ground with a loud thud and Ladybug felt her head spin for a moment. Nathaniel yelled and she caught sight briefly of the akuma spitting its terrible goo all over him and wrapping him in a cocoon. She and Chat tried to untangle themselves quickly but the akuma was too fast, it crawled across the celling of goo to effectively get away from Ladybug and Chat and dropped down into the basement door at the other end of the building.

Everyone left was silent as the door smashed behind the akuma, shocked by how badly Ladybug and Chat Noir had just done in getting the akuma.

“What the hell was that?” Alix yelled out.

Ladybug bowed her head slightly but Chat simply said, “We all need to head down to the basement after it. We need to stick together, so that it can’t pluck us off one by one.”

More nervous looks were shared, even by Alya and Nino, before they all gathered together and followed Chat to the basement door. Ladybug followed beside and slightly behind him, silence between them as he opened the door to the eerie basement hall way. The students were aware that something was wrong with the super heroes they looked up to. No one said anything to the other, and Ladybug caught notice how everyone followed behind them a bit further than what would have been preferable for their protection. Alya and Nino were in the back of the group, and it couldn’t help but bother Ladybug.

Silence, as the walls of the hallway became more and more coated in goo, Chat was speeding ahead, determined to get rid of the akuma _now._ Ladybug reached out to tell him to slow down, but drew her hand back knowing it would be to no avail. Slower and slower the student’s moved until they stopped at a scream.

It was Alya’s.

Chat and Ladybug shot around to see everyone grouping up close to them. The goo was covering most of Alya and part of Nino’s hand as he desperately tried to pull her out of the goo. Ladybug caught sight of the akuma pulling Alya towards it and she found herself frozen in panic, unsure of what to do, how to help her soulmate, instead wondering how on earth the akuma was able to get behind their group. Chat shoved past her and the other students, grabbing Nino around the waist and pulling him away from the akuma and with it Alya. Their hand’s slipped apart, Nino yelling out as he and Chat stumbled backwards, Alya was completely pulled away and surrounded by goo. The akuma wasted no time escaping through a side door that most likely led to its collection of students.

Chat let go of Nino whose hands had begun shaking. They stood frozen, unsure of what had just conspired before them, Ladybug and Chat fearful for their soulmate, but no body moved for several moments.

Alya was gone.

The akuma had got Alya, their soulmate, the person they were supposed to protect above all others. She was _gone._

“Al-fucking-right!” Nino shouted, causing both Ladybug and Chat to flinch at the sudden sharpness of his voice, he turned to them wildly, “This “no-talking” bullshit between you two ends now,” He pointed harshly to both of them, “Whatever the issues you two are having in your personal lives should NOT be affecting your work as superheroes! You two need to get your shit together and get rid of that akuma!”

The two bowed their heads in shame at Nino’s scolding. If he reacted this badly to one of his soulmates being gone, Ladybug could only wonder how he would be if all three of them were in actual danger.

“I’m sorry,” Chat mumbled to him and Ladybug gave her own nervous apology. Nino gave them both a tired sigh, like a parent who couldn’t really stay mad at their kids.

Ladybug slowly pulled her head up and looked over to Chat, if she shared her information with him, they could probably form a proper plan together.

“The akuma, it’s somehow related to fear, when we’re scared of it, it gets bigger. But if you aren’t scared of it, or at least show that we aren’t afraid of it, it gets smaller,” Ladybug quietly informed him, “If it gets small enough we can easily grab it and break whatever item is containing the butterfly,” She frowned, “But I didn’t see it with anything.”

“A pin,” Chat replied, just as quietly, he pointed to his head, “There was a pin on the akuma’s head, it’s small and hard to notice but it’s there.”

It felt immensely good to hear him talking to her, actually acknowledging her.

“It’s Myléne,” Rose suddenly whispered, they both turned to her, “She always has pins on her headband, it must be her,” She explained.

They stood together in thought over the information exchanged.

“Stinky Wolf,” Nino said quietly. Everyone looked at him in question, “Stinky wolf, that’s the song Myléne sang to calm herself when she was scared, if we sing it to the akuma, then it could shrink.”

There was a nod of agreement between everyone before Chat and Ladybug led the way to the door that contained the Akuma. With a twist and a shove the door opened and they entered the akuma’s nest to find frightening cocoons of hardened goo all standing up in little towers around the room. The remaining students gathered together tightly and remained behind Ladybug and Chat Noir near the wall. A gurgle was heard and they watched the akuma move and drop down before them amongst its pillars.

“Chat you need to trap it!” Ladybug yelled as the Akuma lunged for her.

He leapt up to the pipelines as she hit the akuma hard with her yo-yo. It stumbled back with a high yelp as Chat called out for his special power and swiped across some pipes. They broke and fell down and around where the akuma had stumbled. It tried to escape the newly formed cage but it was trapped. Chat slid back to the group.

“Now everyone, sing!”

And they sang, it was rather bad and off key but it was effective as the akuma began to shrink, smaller and smaller until it was the size of a rabbit. They ended the song as Ladybug and Chat Noir began to approach the akuma. It moved away from them and curled into itself, now being the one who was frightened. Ladybug calmly plucked the pin off of its head, now much more obvious to see, and smashed it against the ground. Like routine the butterfly emerged from the broken object and Ladybug used her yo-yo to grab it and quickly purify it.

The now white butterfly flew away and a sparkle of Ladybugs cleaned the basement room of any remnants from the akuma. All the students from their class appeared from their cocoons and groaned from the sudden change in atmosphere. Myléne appeared in place of the monster, curled into herself on the ground, she turned to Ladybug and Chat Noir with a dazed look. They helped her up and Ivan came rushing to her side asking her questions if she was okay and fretting over her general wellbeing.

Chat walked over to where Nino was fussing over Alya, no one noticed as they were too busy rejoicing with their soulmates and friends. They would however eventually notice if Marinette and Adrien were gone for much too long.

“We all should get out of this basement,” Ladybug announced pointing to the open door.

There was a murmur of agreement as the basement was dark and eerie and students were technically not allowed there, they slowly shuffled up and out the door. Alya and Nino keeping towards the back of the group and Ladybug and Chat watching over all the students until only Alya and Nino remained in the doorway. Ladybug and Chat quickly ducked behind the door and released their transformations to follow behind as Marinette and Adrien once again.

With a light tug while they kept moving, the door closed completely and they trailed after Alya and Nino, trying to appear inconspicuous. All the students grouped together in front of the door that led to the basement, chatting over what had happened with the akuma. No one noticed how the little soulmate group suddenly became full, nor how they shoved past the group, eager to end the day and have their own talk over what had happened. Though it was immediately noticed with much disappointment that Ladybug and Chat Noir had suddenly split, leaving the class once again alone in the building. Leaving Marinette once again, forced to isolation with her soulmates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The whole reason I added the this chapter was to have Nino scolding Ladybug and Chat Noir, 3,500 words in, *sweat*.  
> As you could probably tell I changed a lot that happened in the actual Horrificator episode to fit how I was telling the story, also I never actually rewatched the episode even though I kept meaning to.


	8. Rose

After the Akuma incident the students agreed their day had been long enough and they could work on the video another time. They shuffled up the stairs to grab their things and head home but Alya, Nino, Adrien, and Marinette stayed behind and talked quietly among themselves.

“Sorry about snapping at you two, I just sort of panicked after seeing Alya dragged away like that,” Nino said pulling an arm around Alya, his voice much softer now.

“No, it’s alright, I just…” Adrien looked to the side, unsure of how to explain his childishness.

He wanted to justify himself, that he wasn’t ready, because he wasn’t, but that still didn’t give reason as to why he was being so rash. He was just so angry when the akuma appeared, interrupting their class, interrupting his time to mend.

“You weren’t ready to start talking again we know,” Alya answered for him, they seemed almost too understanding, but he felt better not having to fully explain himself, “Thank you for saving me you two,” Alya pulled both he and Marinette, as well as Nino whose arm was still around her, into a tight hug.

It was warm and he felt happy from the contact from his soulmates, though it was still tense as he and Marinette brushed up close to each other. She tried her best to not push against him too much, and Adrien realized he was eternally grateful for the space she had been giving him, she had been giving all of them over the past few days.

He couldn’t help but catch the pained expression on Marinette as they were released from the hug and she looked down again, timid and quiet, very unlike her typical self. Though it could have just been that she acted different as a superhero, he knew he did, braver and more willing to jump towards danger. But seeing how she normally acted with other students, particularly her hot-headedness with Chloé, he knew that this simply wasn’t true, that she was containing herself around her soulmates.

 _She was afraid_ , he recalled. The fears she shared with the class were very real, and Adrien couldn’t help the pain that bloomed across his heart from hearing them. She was allowing herself to be disengaged with them as they were with her, because she was afraid of overstepping her boundaries and losing them. A mix of thankfulness, worry, and some sick sort of satisfaction washed over him at the thought of how she took her “exile” so to say. It occurred to him now that she may have been suffering just as much as he was over this.

The only ones who really talked to Marinette at the moment were Tikki and Plagg, when they weren’t busy talking to Adrien, Nino, and Alya and answering their questions. Alya had asked and probed the kwamis with as many questions as she could, all while promising not to reveal this information on her Ladyblog or to any other soul she knew. She found the concept of the kwamis fascinating in themselves, and the personalities of the kwamis interesting, though it was obvious that Alya preferred Tikki over Plagg.

Adrien was dragged out of his distraction when all three of his soulmates made their way up the stairs to get their things; he quickly followed after, watching Marinette just ahead of him. The more forgiving side of him suddenly wanted to reach out and relieve her of her isolation, thank her for being so understanding, but a hasher piece of him kept him silent, reminding him if his anger, of the whole reason he was being silent with her. They battled quietly within his head.

In two or so days, he decided, he would talk to her again. Slow and quiet, only the simplest exchanges, not quite ready to give her full relief all at once, and so as to lead him up to feeling completely okay with actually talking with her again. When they eventually got there, they would be on completely equal terms, no hiding anything from each other, no barriers of mystery.

The four of them gathered their bags and decided to head to Marinette’s home, as it was the closest to the school. Adrien pulled out his phone and sent a quick message to Nathalie, informing her of where he would be. Adrien had yet to introduce any of his soulmates to his father, he knew they existed, as no one suddenly spent that much time with others they barely knew without a reason. He was nervous of course, how his father would act towards them, how he would probably probe them with questions and concerns over whether or not they were really Adrien’s soulmates or even “worthy” of him. Not to mention with their current rocky status a meeting with father could not go well.

He had met his soulmate’s parents though. Alya and Nino’s with proper introductions, their parents were very welcoming though they probed him with many questions, which was both exciting and nerve wracking. And Marinette’s while the three of them were leaving to talk alone, it had been awkward, trying to explain the yelling and the reason they were leaving so soon, and without Marinette. Eventually they constructed a complete lie, which made Adrien sick to his stomach, but he played along with it; there was nothing else they could come up with, which only gave more justification to what Marinette did. Adrien tried to convince himself that it was different, because it was, the secrets they kept, they kept together, but the dichotomy of lying made everything more difficult and aggravating than is should have been.

Once in Marinette’s room they curled onto the ground in a blanket they had stolen off her bed, Tikki and Plagg floating from their hiding places and resting where they preferred. Tikki enjoyed sitting between Alya and Adrien, as they talked with her the most, Nino was still cautious around the peculiar creatures. Plagg preferred settling in Marinette’s hair over everyone elses’, Adrien was sure it was to do whatever the he could to spite him. Plagg made his way to Marinette where she sat just a bit off from everyone, not actually making any contact with them.

Alya grabbed Marinette’s hand and pulled her into her side, wrapping the edge of the blanket around Marinette’s shoulder. Alya acted as a barrier between her and Adrien so he let himself relax with Nino on his other side. Barely, Adrien noticed how Marinette lit up at the contact, she really was beautiful, he thought to himself.

With a sigh he turned towards Nino and rested his forehead in Nino’s neck, suddenly feeling very tired. Everything was a mix of right and wrong. The way Nino squeezed his hand and Alya leaned on him with both her and Marinette’s weight was good, it was good and it was right because he was with his soulmates, the people who he was destined to spend his life with, who had a deep connection with him even before he knew them. Something in that fact though, that Adrien had pulled himself through a lot of emotional turmoil today, was wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong because he needed more time to heal and what had happened today caused a strange array of steps, neither forwards nor backwards, in their mending relationship. The thought made him even more tired, so he let himself sleep.

* * *

 In the next couple of days Adrien did allow himself to talk with Marinette. She was shocked initially, taking a moment to let him think over his decision and feel alright over it, and she spoke back, something short and simple. Alya and Nino were always there, so he felt better with every step he took with her. He had noticed how over the past couple of days they had been interacting with her more, taking their own small steps, but with it he saw a light flash through her every time they did interact with her. In a matter of speaking Marinette was becoming her whole self again, Adrien knew he was happy about this, about his soulmates all becoming whole and together once again, and he was ready to become whole with them.

The days passed, Adrien interacted more and more with Marinette, all three of his soulmates for the matter, and he felt better. The few akumas they fought in that time went more smoothly, as they gave very professional exchanges to each other and became a team again, with Alya and Nino watching their backs carefully. With an almost sudden realization, Adrien came to the conclusion that he was more happy that they were all together now than he was angry about what had happened. It seemed so strange to him, that he would be so okay with an issue he thought he would never get over when it first occurred, but he was. Being with Alya, Nino, and Marinette no doubt made him immensely happy.

They were nearing Adrien’s house, about to meet his father, when he finally decided to voice this to her.

“Marinette,” Adrien said quietly. He stopped where he was in the middle of the surprisingly empty street, pulling Alya, Nino, and eventually Marinette to a stop.

“Yes?” She asked, her voice soft and full of concern.

Before starting he took a step towards her and used his free hand that wasn’t holding Alya’s to grab hers, she looked down at their hands shyly. He took a quiet breath to collect his thoughts and find a way to properly articulate himself to her.

“As we’ve started to talk more, I’ve been happier, you’ve been happier,” He started, choosing his words slow and carefully, Marinette looked him straight in the eyes and listened intently to his every word, “We, now that we’re all together, we’re stronger, I can feel it. Whenever I’m with all three of you,” He looked between Alya and Nino, who were listening to him just as intently, “I feel happier. And I’ve become so much happier, being with all of you.”

He took another breath, trying to calm himself down from all the emotions welling through him.

“I love all of you so much. A-and I’m so glad that I have, that I have all of you here with me now. And I don’t actually want to lose you, not now, not ever, and not to anything,” He looked between all three of them again from where he had suddenly been staring at the ground. Alya and Nino gave him warm and sympathetic smiles, and Marinette looked like she wanted to cry.

Alya let him release her hand to pull Marinette into a hug. She finally broke down and began crying into his shirt, holding him tightly with her whole body shaking. He held her just as tightly as Alya and Nino wrapped around Marinette and Adrien in a full hug, letting out quiet “Shhhhses” to calm Marinette down. Adrien was barely able to catch the barrage of "I'm sorry's" she mumbled into his shirt. He let out a breath and smiled, bowing his head and tapping it against Alya and Nino’s to form a small encasing around her.

“Shhs, It’s alright, we’re here, all of us. Together. It’s alright,” He mumbled.

And it was. Wrapped in the warmth and love from all three of his soul mates, Adrien really did feel like it was going to be alright, he was no longer alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that, I end this short fic.  
> Thank you for sticking with this little story. This was the second fic I ever wrote and I did it in such a short amount of time, while AMPY took me four years to actually complete, I managed to write and complete this story in 4 months.  
> Please leave a review and tell me what you thought of this story. And please go to my profile to look at my other works.  
> Thank you all for reading!
> 
> Actually, lmao, not this isn't the last chapter, I have a bonus chapter after this of everyone meeting Gabe since someone asked me about it, but it was written with much less quality than the rest of the fic, more like a joke chapter.


	9. Donger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a bonus chapter, it's complete bollocks and has a more adult rating compared to the rest of the fic. Amazingly enough I was completely sober when I wrote this.  
> The best experience is to read it in a stoner's voice.

Question: How would Adri's soulmates meeting Gabe go? How would he feel?

* * *

 

Gabes would probably be bitter af because his soulmate (Adrien's mother) buggered off a while ago. And Adri's soulmates would see him as rather intimidating as he carries himself as such, and Mari knows all about him ‘cause she idolizes him and he's kinda started out on a pedestal.

They'd get there and Adri would introduce them and they'd all kinda be like "fuck" while Gabes is silently staring at them and judging them for the top of the fucking stairs like some kind of power hungry cuck.

Nino would be the first one to suck it up and be like "What's up Mr. Dude, I love your son but I'm kinda bitter that you made him miserable for so long by keeping him isolated from the rest of the world like who fucking does that? You're his father, what the fuc-"

"Okay Nino that's enough."

And then Alya and Mari would also be like "Nice to meet you Mr. Dude"

"Hey Mr. Dude, your son and I totally aren't superheroes and I totally didn't meet him and lie to him about his soulmates and keep them apart for actual months."

"What?"

"What? I didn't say anything."

Anyways Gabes would probably insist on them all having dinner together and it would be super fucking awkward because "Adri, dude, your dad's a terrible fucking conversationalist."

"Man, I fucking know that. He's a complete social wreck after my mother, the only thing that made him happy, fucked off into oblivion."

"I mean you're his son, aren't you supposed to make him happy too?"

"I mean yes? Every once in a while he comes into my room completely fucking unannounced and tells me he loves me, and dude I have never closed my browsing tab faster than when he does that. But other than that he generally fucks off, but it kind of makes sense now that I think about it, the whole reason he kept me confined to my daily schedule was so he would always know where I was and not lose me like he lost my mom, but he's socially inept with or without me."

"Like that makes sense, but that still doesn't forgive the fact that you weren't happy."

"Yeah dude, I know, but he turned around eventually."

So anyways, Babe decides to do one-on-one interviews with everyone and no one can really object ‘cause Gabe's got 'em all by the balls and it’s his house and his fucking rules.

Nino's the first to go into the interview cause he's all like "I've still gotta a few fucking words to say to you Mr. Dude."

And inside Gabes all like "I like your spunk kid, Adrien needs someone who'll look over his back, that kid has some serious bad luck."

"What, seriously?"

"But if I so much as hear him start talking like you with your hippy-dippy language I will sew your fucking mouth shut faster than you can say-" *looks at note card in palm* "It's lit fam."

"Holy shit Mr. Dude."

"Also you are welcome to our family tailor at any time, your clothing choice is atrocious." And Gabe flips up Nino's hat and sends him off for Alya next.

Alya comes in, and she's all chill and introduces herself nicely again and Gabe is like "You know if I didn't know better I would say you're a very normal girl, but I've  seen your "Ladyblog" and needless to say it leaves me concerned." And Alya's all like "fuck" but she asks him what in particular bothers/stands out to him and he all just "You're obsession with the superheros is concerning in itself, more so your obsession with their butts in the past couple of weeks, are you not loyal to my son and your other soulmates?"

"Oh trust me Mr. Dude, it’s a very mutual and personal obsession between the four of us."

"Have you tainted my son? I've seen his browsing history before, he always closes his tabs when I come into his room but he's never smart enough to delete his browsing history afterwards."

"Holy shit."

"Anyways that's all I wanted to say... Send in the next soulmate!"

And Mari comes in and she a complete and utter fucking mess facing him alone, and Gabes all like "Kid, chill, I'm not, like, gonna eat you or some shit." And Mari's just kinda sitting there, holding the 'interrogation chair' with a fucking death grip, internally screaming the national anthem or some shit to keep her from saying anything else stupid. And Gabes is all like "In fact you're probably the best dressed out of the four of you, it's like Adri completely ignores his eye for style by wearing the same goddamn outfit every day. It's not even a designer outfit either, I mean he's my son, why the hell doesn't he wear my fucking designs, I made them, they're the best in the world!"

"Uh, Mr. Dude? Where you going somewhere with this?"

"Right, what I'm saying is I like how you dress, it reminds me of myself, so Imma let whatever the hell that thing was you greeted me with slide for now."

"Really? Thank you, I designed and made everything I'm wearing myself!"

"You're my new daughter now."

"Omg."

"Please make Adri dress better."

"Omg Mr. Dude."

So the interviews are over and everyone's a bit of a fucking mess and Adri's like "Dad what the fuck did you say to them?"

"Oh you know, just a little something here and there."

"Dad no."

And Gabes is standing there, on a fucking stool so he can continue intimidating these fucking teenagers like he’s got nothing better to do and he's just like "You're all kind of weird, but my son's happy with you guys, which is the important part, I think. What I'm trying to say is that if any one of you slip up and make him unhappy history will forever try to find out how there was a set of three soulmates because I will fucking annihilate your very existence from this forsaken planet."

And Mari's thinking "Good thing we didn't meet him a week ago, though being obliterated by your idol wouldn't be such a bad way to go."

"What did you do last week?"

"Shit did I say that out loud?"

"K dad gotta bounce, byeeee." And Gabe just gives a death glare at Nino for what he heard come out of his kid's mouth.

And they all fuck off to some cafe, vowing to never have dinner at Adri's house again because holy shit his dad is going to murder them in their sleep.


End file.
